Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 17 of 35

CONSUMER BEHAVI
JELLY BEANS,
MUSIC, AND
S E C T I O N
18
UO
BUS
I
NE
S
S
:
T
HE
M
A
G
A
Z
I
NE
//
SUMMER
2
0
17
F A C U LT Y
W
ould knowing you will
be offered a different
flavor of jelly bean in
the future make your current
jelly bean eating experience
better? How about a song from
Grammy-winning crooner Sam
Smith? Does knowing a different
song—in this case Mark Ronson
and Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk"—
is coming, make listening to
Smith's "I'm Not the Only One"
more enjoyable than knowing it's
only Sam from here on out?
According to new research
from Lundquist College
assistant professor of marketing
Jiao Zhang and coauthors Julio
Sevilla and Barbara E. Kahn, the
answer in both scenarios is a
resounding "yes."
Zhang and his colleagues
used music and jelly beans in
their research studies to build
on the established psychological
theory that thinking about an
upcoming pleasant experience
makes current experiences
better. The study "Anticipation of
Future Variety Reduces Satiation
from Current Experiences,"
appeared in the Journal of
Marketing Research and was
featured on the American
Marketing Association's
Scholarly Insights blog in
January 2017.
"Until now, no one has
studied how thinking about a
future consumption experience
can actually have an impact
on current consumption
experience," Zhang said.
In particular, the researchers
were interested in testing if
subjects tire of a particular
experience less quickly if they
know a differing experience is
on the horizon.
He used the "Costco pack"
as a real-world example. One
will likely tire of a strawberry
flavored yogurt before
consuming all 36 containers, but
knowing a blueberry yogurt is in
your future (i.e., the variety pack)
makes the current strawberry
one more enjoyable, even if you
have to eat a dozen of them.